Roy Keane has never just courted controversy; they’ve been inseparable for more than 30 years. During a playing career littered with rows and red cards, he always insisted he’d never become a pundit – but it was absolutely inevitable given his fearless and forthright nature.
Keane says whatever he wants and revels in representing the old school. He has little time for discussing the complexities of the modern game; as far as he is concerned, it’s still all about the basics. Forget about double-pivots and counter-pressing; it’s pride and passion that still make the difference at the very highest level.
Keane plays this ‘grumpy old man’ role to perfection. Indeed, with amusing smirks and pithy put-downs, Keane has become must-watch TV. His reactions to poor performances – particularly those of Manchester United – invariably go viral, sparking debate and generating memes all across the football world.
During Sky Sports’ coverage of the massive Premier League clash between Manchester City and Arsenal, Keane went from displaying his contempt for a mid-programme promo for the new series of House of the Dragon, to eviscerating Erling Haaland after the Norwegian contributed nothing but an atrocious miss to the dreadful 0-0 draw.
“The level of his general play is so poor,” the Irishman said. “And not just today. I think his laying stuff off, headers, whatever it might be – in front of goal he’s the best in the world – but for his general play for such a player it is so poor… He has to improve that. He’s almost like a League Two player.”
Keane knew what he was doing – just like colleague Gary Neville when he labelled Chelsea “billion-pound bottle-jobs” during Sky’s coverage of the Carabao Cup final. They are acutely aware that their job as pundits is to not only educate viewers – but entertain them. They want to get people talking, and Keane certainly did with his Haaland appraisal.
Rio Ferdinand 2024Getty image
‘His whole game is finishing’
Chris Sutton called the League Two comparison “ridiculous” in his column for BBC Sport – while Rio Ferdinand described it as “a bit far-fetched” on FIVE’s official YouTube channel. It was telling, though, that neither man issued a staunch defence of Haaland’s all-round game.
Sutton even acknowledged that the Norwegian No.9’s “link-up play could be cleaner” and his main counter-argument seemed to be that Haaland’s only responsibility at City is scoring goals. Contributing in any other way is a bonus – but not part of his job.
Ferdinand also pointed out that it has ever been thus with Haaland. “His all-round game has never been something anyone’s marvelled at,” the former Manchester United defender said. “I’ve never, ever sat there and thought, ‘Wow, his hold-up play is immense! He gets it in and brings other people in the game.’
“His whole game is finishing, in and around the six-yard box and penalty box or running onto things when he runs onto stuff from the halfway line. That’s it. [The other parts of his] game always needed work. How many times did we watch him earlier last season when he was on his goalscoring run, he had eight, 10, 12 touches in a game?”
Ferdinand’s right, too: Haaland’s lack of involvement has been obvious since his early days at the Etihad.
Fewer goals, greater scrutiny
In the 4-0 rout of Bournemouth on August 13, 2022, Haaland touched the ball eight times – equalling the previous Premier League low set by Romelu Lukaku while toiling up front for Chelsea the year before.
In the grand scheme of things, it didn’t matter, of course. City finally had the goalscorer they needed to finish off their brilliant build-up play and Haaland struck 52 times during their treble-winning campaign. Questions over his overall contribution were, thus, rendered moot.
However, Haaland hasn’t been quite as prolific this season. He still has 29 goals in all competitions, but his shot conversion rate has dropped to 20 percent and he’s missed far more ‘big chances’ than other player across Europe’s ‘Big Five leagues’.
It was inevitable, then, that fewer goals would mean greater scrutiny of Haaland’s game, because if you take away the sensational strike-rate he’s had since he was a teenager, you’re not left with many truly outstanding attributes.
Sven Botman Erling Haaland Newcastle Manchester City 2023-24Getty
Not making the most of his physical advantages
Haaland is lightning-quick but doesn’t move particularly well with the ball at his feet, as underlined by the fact that he has completed just 13 dribbles in all competitions this season – that’s one more than a rapidly deteriorating 34-year-old Ciro Immobile.
Haaland’s also an impressive physical specimen and yet, as former City defender Micah Richards acknowledged while sitting alongside Keane in the Sky Sports studio on Sunday, Haaland is not a great target man.
Ivan Toney only started playing again in the middle of January after suspension, but the Brentford striker has won more headers this season than Haaland (43), who has also only managed six flick-ons (Olivier Giroud has 70).
Keane was also spot on about Haaland’s inability to hold the ball up well. He has just 22 successful lay-offs in all competitions. To put that in context, Romelu Lukaku, who is widely ridiculed for his poor first touch, has 66.
Haaland is not a very modern No.9 either, in the sense that he offers next-to-nothing from a defensive perspective. He has won just two tackles all season long, and recovered possession for his side on just 44 occasions (for context, Joshua Zirkzee has won the ball back 88 times for Bologna).
Of course, what really stands out is just how little Haaland sees of the ball. He has had as many touches of the ball this season (777) as Manchester United flop Wout Weghorst, who is now playing for Hoffenheim.
Of course, Sutton has argued that none of this matters; that Haaland is still serving his primary purpose: scoring goals. But questions do need to be asked.
Pep Guardiola Erling Haaland Manchester City Premier League 2023-24Getty
Can Pep improve Haaland?
Firstly, has Haaland actually improved since moving to Manchester City? Has his game evolved at all? Pep Guardiola has an impressive record of improving players, but he himself has admitted that he can’t teach Haaland anything about scoring goals, which is fair enough. But if hitting the back of the net is the striker’s sole responsibility at the Etihad, is the 22-year-old actually going to get better in other aspects of the game?
Former Scotland striker Ally McCoist certainly doesn’t think so. He scoffed at the suggestion made last season that Haaland was the best player Guardiola had coached since Lionel Messi, pointing out that, technically, he’s “not on the same planet” as the likes of David Silva, Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne.
Even team-mate Stefan Ortega has admitted that “Erling is not the best footballer in the team, technically speaking” and Haaland certainly doesn’t boast the same array of skills as Julian Alvarez, who doesn’t just score goals – but also creates them, both with his passing and his pressing.
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None of this is to say, of course, that Haaland isn’t hugely important to City. His role is small but significant. Goals are the most precious commodity in football, so Haaland is invaluable in that sense.
Furthermore, his mere presence on the pitch is enough to occupy defenders, while his movement in and around the box is outstanding. Haaland always manages to find space in packed penalty areas, and that’s down to his intelligent reading of the game and rapid reflexes.
‘Erling needs all his mates’
However, the deficiencies in Haaland’s game shouldn’t be ignored – not least because doing so leads to ludicrous comparisons with the game’s great No.9s, such as Marco van Basten, Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Gabriel Batistuta and Alan Shearer – all of whom were far more than just penalty-box predators.
Could Haaland yet reach their level? Absolutely, he is still only 23 and he is presently on track to break nearly every goalscoring record in the book. But he’s like a juiced-up Gerd Muller, and the idea that Haaland is somehow a complete centre-forward is horribly wide of the mark. This is not a player capable of breaking down – or through – defences all on his own, as even Guardiola acknowledged last season.
At a time when Haaland was being compared to Messi after scoring 17 goals in his first 11 games for City, the former Barcelona boss pointed out that “the difference is that Erling needs all his mates”, whereas “Messi had the ability to do it himself”.
Haaland will likely never develop that rare and special talent – and there’s certainly no shame in that – but it would be a pity if we don’t see him develop into something more than a great goal-scorer, given his many natural gifts. Indeed, one cannot help but wonder if he is happy playing such a restrictive role at City.
The potential for him to become a far more prolific version of Zlatan Ibrahimovic – one of his childhood idols – has always been there. We saw it in Salzburg and Dortmund. But it’s clear he still has an awful long way to go if he wants to be remembered as the perfect No.9.
To compare Haaland to a League Two player may be wrong, but Keane is right that the City star’s all-round game is not yet anything like world-class.
